NEW DELHI: The equity markets traded choppy on Wednesday as benchmark indices erased early gains and finished with losses of about half a per cent.

30-share BSE Sensex lost 144.52 points to close on 34,155.95 and the broader 50-share NSE Nifty stayed just above the 10,500-mark, losing 39 points.

The volatility in the markets was on the back of state-run bank stocks performing poorly. The PNB stock tanked 10 per cent after the country’s second largest lender said that it detected a Rs 11,500 crore fraud in one of its Mumbai branches. The overall Nifty PSU bank sub-index lost almost 5 per cent during the day.